Professor Bob Lawless recently spoke with Bloomberg Law about the 2016 drop in bankruptcy filings. Bankruptcy filings for the 12-month period ending Dec. 31, 2016, dropped 5.9 percent since last year and are the lowest number of filings for any calendar year since 2006, according to statistics released Jan. 25 by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC).

“We have historically low filing rates,” Professor Lawless told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 25.

“Filing rates haven’t been this low since 1987,” he said. Lawless said he discounts 2005 and 2006 due to “huge anomalies in the data,” and goes back to the 1990s for filing rates.

“The numbers show that bankruptcies are flattening out,” Lawless said. “We’re very close to the bottom,” he said.

More at Bloomberg News.